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I’m really sorry about the lateness of this post. 5 days too late, actually. I’d like to blame it on all of my responsible school work, but the truth is I could have spent less time eating muffins and gotten this post to you on time. Oh well. I’ll make up for it later with a delicious new recipe 🙂

So last Sunday I participated in my first Sprint Triathlon. It was miserable yet completely wonderful all at the same time- you have to experience it for yourself to know what I mean.

Right before the start- my freezing cold #17 leg.

The temperature was in the 40s when I first got to the race and things were just starting to warm up when the race started. I definitely froze my butt off in that water, even though it was warmer than the air.

You can see my goosebumps from here. Well, I can anyway.

I’m very disappointed in my swim time. I was entirely out of my element in that atmosphere and when I rewatch a video of my start I can’t help but shake my head that I looked that pathetic. It was like everything I know about swimming went right out the window and I was simply in survival mode trying to keep warm and get the heck out of that water without dying from an asthma attack. I was very choppy in my stroke and as a result I fell pretty far behind my wave.

Cycling was my one redeeming factor — I even managed to finish in goal time (50 minutes.) That, and my transition times were some of the fastest out of anyone there since I didn’t have to take off a wetsuit and I didn’t change to cycling shoes.

I was so cold I was shaking for almost the entire bike ride but, I still managed to regain some ground and pass several people on climbs. There were several hills on the course which definitely worked to my advantage — I may be slow in most areas, but I can power over hills like nobody’s business. All those 4 min wall sits on leg days weren’t for nothing.

Unfortunately, the course was not marked well — I missed a loop and had to turn around which put me back a few minutes.

My run pace was about 1-2 min slower than I wanted. In training I always did a 9 min mile and I felt great, but I just couldn’t hold that during the race. Towards the end of the run I picked up the speed because I FINALLY stopped shaking and warmed up.

My time was 2:03 — about 20 minutes longer than I wanted but I’m still happy I finished! Apparently I was 2nd in my age group but I have a feeling that was more of a “default” thing due to the fact that not many people my age did the race.

I celebrated with a plain beef patty for breakfast — another “first” for me.

Overall it was a great experience and everything that I hoped it would be. I enjoyed the scenery on the bike and run — it was all along the coast and it was breathtaking– and the racing environment is really fun, too. I’ll definitely be doing more races in the future — hopefully during a slightly warmer time of year, though 🙂

So today I’m back to the usual Friday routine– cooking, eating, and homework. I’ve got some good recipes in store for you guys!

I’m not one to be sentimental about anything. Ever. Sad movies make me laugh. Im always like “Psh they’re so dramatic. I’m glad I’m not that ridiculous. Im so tough. Give me my crossbow so I can go kill breakfast.”

Yup, not exaggerating at all.

But yesterday morning was different. Maybe it was just because it was a rest day and I can’t cope on rest days.

My iPhone calendar alert went off telling me that it was 24 hours until I would be crossing the finish line… and I think I may have shed a tear.

*queue the Schindler’s List soundtrack*

Now I know I’m a very fortunate person for many reasons — too many to name — but I went through a lengthy time of feeling weak and abnormal (due to Celiacs) and it was frankly depressing. Triathlons were a pipe dream. It was awful being sick every day and wanting to run, but turning around at the top of the street because I thought I would pass out since nothing had stayed in my system for days, if not weeks. Being treated like I was anorexic by doctors and friends really didn’t help my attitude much.

You know the story- it’s your typical “indigestion-to-riches-fairy-tale.” All of us bloggers have one.

Simply because I’m stubborn and don’t like to look weak, I kept experimenting with eating healthy until I made it a day without being sick. That took a while. Next I started to workout — no cardio, I didn’t weigh enough for that — but I did lots of strength training. Then I gained weight and I started to get stronger. Maybe even not just stronger than I used to be, but stronger than a lot of healthy people are.

And so I got a road bike. And I also ran.

And life went on like that for a while.

A few months ago, it dawned on me that I had a shot at doing this now. And so I paid the expensive triathlon fee and signed up.

And now here I am- writing on my own fitness blog, working out daily, eating healthy (and keeping it down), and getting ready to race.

You see, this triathlon for me doesn’t only represent tackling a few months of a hard training plan, it goes back years before that. This represents overcoming numerous diet, stress, strength, and life issues.

It was all worth it for many reasons, one of them being that it makes this race so much more special for me.

But enough of my bolognese. I can only be like that for so long.

So, it’s really easy for me to feel motivated because this is so meaningful for me, right? WRONG.

It takes daily encouragement, so I thought I’d share some of that with you. Some of it’s really motivating and some of it’s just distracting because sometimes I have the attention span of an 8 year old boy and need to be entertained.

Only one week to go until I zip up my wetsuit (if it gets here in time…) and line up at the starting line.

Only one week until I’ll pedal my heart out on the bike to make up for my lack of swimming/running skills.

Only one week until the day I’ve been waiting for for as long as I can remember.

I am beyond excited and nervous.

Can I carbo load yet?

Speaking of carb loading, I learned a lot about it from this article on Runners World. It’s very consistent with what I’ve learned from studying carbs in biology and I think it has some good tips that I’ll definitely be using this week.

As you probably remember from Into to Bio, your body can use both glycogen (stored carbs) and triglycerides (stored fat) to fuel itself, but it wants to reach for the glycogen first. I remember my professor referring to glycogen as “cash on hand” and triglycerides as “stocks that take a while to trade in.”

Since the fastest way to get energy is through glycogen, thats what you want to make sure your muscles have plenty of before your race.

Random side note: Run to the Finish recommends emptying your glycogen stores and starting fresh. I think I’ll try this just to see what happens (Ill do this on Tuesday anyway– 4 mile run, 1/2 mile swim, 1 hr spin class.)

So with all that said, here are some of my pre-race plans (for meals and other stuff):

Replace some of the fat and protein in my diet with carbs, starting tuesday.

Eat good carbs that I know will digest well (sweet potatoes, rice, quinoa, veggies, fruit)

Limit my fiber the day before the race (sorry, fruit. Ill miss you…)

Get an extra hour or two of sleep every night starting now.

Spend an hour the day before the race stretching — other than that its a total rest day.

Drink a little more water than usual the day before the race.

Honestly, I don’t want to eat the morning of my race. I never eat before I workout and I don’t think my body is ready for me to switch it up like that.